RECOLLECTIONS BY A LADY. 347 



story. He said he was glad she had not found him 

 out, as he happened to have a store of such stories. 

 On being asked to tell us some, he complied most 

 readily, and told us several. I never heard such 

 stories so told. I happened to have made the re- 

 quest, and he " held me with his eye " as he told 

 them, an eye not " glittering," but pale and sad, the 

 saddest I ever knew. He seemed to see the scenes he 

 described, and compelled one to see them too. It was 

 evident he had been nurtured in the belief of these 

 superstitions, and that in early life they must have had 

 complete sway over his mind, a sway that might be 

 resumed in hours of weakness. Then, however, he dis- 

 claimed all belief in them ; and in the conversation 

 which preceded the stories, had made some forcible 

 remarks on the frequent combination in the same person 

 of scepticism and credulity, and on the difference be- 

 tween a real faith in revealed truth, and the ready belief 

 in lying wonders, then beginning to be common. 



' Whoever has read that chapter in Hugh Miller's 

 autobiography which relates his religious history will 

 be aware that the inner life and conflict of the true 

 follower of Christ would not in him come to the sur- 

 face in conversation. But no one could have inter- 

 course with him without plainly perceiving his deep 

 religious reverence and faith. I have heard the opinion 

 expressed, that doubts must have beset him to the end 

 of his life. The very contrary was my impression. He 

 had laid these " spectres of the mind " in earlier life, 

 and they did not rise to haunt him again. He saw the 

 rising tide of scepticism, and foresaw that it was bring- 

 ing misery to the world and trial to the Church, and to 

 raise some bulwarks against it was his earnest desire. 

 His attempts to harmonize Scripture and geology were 



